Latham silent on spy flights in Iraq

Opposition Leader Mark Latham has refused to say if Australian surveillance planes would continue to fly missions over Iraq, despite his commitment to withdraw all troops involved in Iraq operations.

As part of his pledge to bring the troops home by Christmas, Mr Latham has said the 260 inside Iraq and 150 supporting two Hercules supply planes would be withdrawn, but the two PC Orion planes in the Persian Gulf would remain.

Defence Minister Robert Hill has told The Age the planes were continuing to fly missions over Iraq, along with other duties. "Elsewhere, they carry out wider responsibilities in the war against terrorism, including surveillance of suspect shipping movements and potential terrorist activities.

"They support the coalition forces on the ground in Iraq and the Iraqi people through tasks such as the surveillance of nighttime movements and unexplained boat movements," Senator Hill said.

Mr Latham's office would not be drawn on whether the planes would be banned from such missions in line with his pledge to end operations in Iraq. "The Orions will continue to operate in the Gulf as part of the war on terror," a spokesman said.

"The Government traditionally doesn't, and shouldn't, discuss publicly the detail of intelligence operations, and we certainly won't."

In Parliament, Prime Minister John Howard accused the Opposition of creating its Iraq policy "on the run". If Australian forces were brought home after power was handed to an Iraqi administration from the end of June, some military trainers would only be deployed there for a few weeks.

"So in those circumstances to talk about them coming back within a few weeks of them arriving is patently absurd," Mr Howard said. "Our position is that all elements of the Australian Defence Force should remain in Iraq and in the Iraqi theatre until their job is done."

Mr Latham said Labor's shadow cabinet had decided a year ago that Australian forces should return home as soon as possible.

"Shadow cabinet 12 months ago said we wanted the troops out right away under a Labor government. That's consistent with the timetable I outlined last week," Mr Latham said.

Mr Howard said Western countries should not behave as if they were reacting to the Madrid train bombings.

"I think that would send a dreadful message to the terrorists and (they will) think, 'Well, if we bomb the daylights out of a place and kill people, we can get an appropriate response in all sorts of unexpected quarters'."

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd accused the Government of double standards as it had been devising its Iraq exit strategy for months.